Both Sides Don't

Bob Menendez is under indictment (again) for some pretty heinous shit.

If he was a Republican, there'd be no question - that whole fucking party would be jumping in to prop him up.

After totally screwing the pooch 8 years ago, the Dems are going for a little redemption, and mostly telling him to get lost.

Bob Menendez flirting with reelection worries Democrats about future seat

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) is weighing reelection, prompting the majority of Senate Democrats to call on him to resign.

While the indicted senator is being coy about his intentions, his Democratic colleagues believe that a reelection bid would hand a Senate seat to the Republican Party in a tight 2024 race.

"There is something like a 0 percent chance he would be able to get the nomination," an anonymous senator told Politico. "He's a dead man walking, politically."

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), the second senator to call for Menendez to resign, said, "I hope he doesn't run, but if he does run, it's his choice. And I think he will lose."

While more than half of Senate Democrats have called for the embattled senator from New Jersey to resign, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) has been the only one to encourage candidates to challenge Menendez in the primary.

"If he would be foolish enough to run for reelection," Fetterman said, "I will be actively assisting anyone that's running against him in the primary."

( ⬆︎ Why I'm good with John Fetterman ⬆︎ )

The Pennsylvania senator submitted a fundraising appeal for South Jersey's Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ), a current front-runner to challenge Menendez in the Democratic primary.

Asked about his timeline for a decision on the 2024 election, Menendez told Politico, "I don't have to answer to you people ... I will tell the people of New Jersey when I'm ready."

If the indicted senator ignores warnings from his constituents in the Senate, he faces what National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Steve Daines (R-MT) says "could become a competitive race."

Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) is one of the leading names in the New Jersey Republican Party who might challenge for the Garden State's up-for-grabs Senate seat. Van Drew is a former Democrat who switched parties in 2019.

Menendez was indicted, alongside his wife Nadine Menendez, on allegations of accepting bribes and gifts from businessmen in exchange for aid to the Egyptian government. Investigators found approximately $500,000 in cash and $100,000 in gold bars stuffed in various places in their Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, estate.

One of the gifts Menendez allegedly received included a brand-new $60,000 Mercedes-Benz convertible, given to the Menendez family just months after Nadine Menendez damaged her car in a fatal crash involving a pedestrian.

The couple and businessman pleaded not guilty to federal charges.

Slapping Back

"Travis Kelce should be hung"

"Uh, Travis Kelce is 6'5", 250 - I think he prob'ly is."

No Punches Pulled

You might wanna put on the headphones for this one. It's not quite NSFW, but it's close. And there're some great subliminals in the voiceover that are worth the effort.

Clutching Pearls

Brian Tyler Cohen

That Middle East Shit

I'm not dismissing the very real problems that make life pretty fucking miserable in Israel and Gaza.

I am, however, going to mock the fuck out of the exhaustively stoopid politics it roils up here in USAmerica Inc.

Here's a fair example of what the big brained Republicans are yapping about:

That's not a plan, Kevin - that's part of a standup routine.

And BTW, on that whole 'secure our southern border' thing, here's something the Israelis found out it doesn't work for shit.

Show me a 20-foot wall, and I'll show you a guy selling 25-foot ladders.

How Hamas breached Israel’s ‘Iron Wall’

The massive, complex attack on Israel on Saturday by militants from Gaza Strip stunned Israelis, who watched in horror as fighters easily bypassed one of the world’s most advanced security systems.

At least 900 people have been killed in Israel and more than 2,600 wounded. More than 100 people have been taken captive. Israel has pounded Gaza with airstrikes, killing at least 680 people, according to Palestinian authorities.

The “smart fence” that separates Israel from Gaza is equipped with cutting-edge technology, designed to detect any security breach. This is how the militants got through.

An ‘iron wall’

In 2021 Israel announced the completion of its “smart fence,” a 40-mile-long barricade along the Gaza Strip that included an underground concrete barrier.

I don't suppose anyone would like to talk about concentration camps right about now, would they?

The project was publicly announced in 2016 after Hamas used underground tunnels to attack Israeli forces in the 2014 war. It required more than 140,000 tons of iron and steel, according to Reuters, and the installation of hundreds of cameras, radars and sensors. Access near the fence on the Gaza side was limited to farmers on foot. On the Israeli side, observation towers and sand dunes were put in place to monitor threats and slow intruders.

In 2021, then-Defense Minister Benny Gantz said the barrier placed an “iron wall” between Hamas and southern Israel.

But on Saturday, a surprise series of coordinated efforts enabled Hamas to get past the wall. The fence was breached at 29 points, according to the Israel Defense Forces. Though there were Israeli guard towers positioned every 500 feet along the perimeter of the wall at some points, the fighters appeared to encounter little resistance.

The border was minimally staffed, it soon became apparent, with much of Israel’s military diverted to focus on unrest in the West Bank.

“The most compelling parts of the system were the ones that provided indicators and warnings,” said Matthew Levitt, director of the counterterrorism program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “But once you don’t see in advance that someone is massed at the fence, it’s still just a fence. A big fence, but just a fence.”

1. Drones dropped explosives

Using commercial drones, Hamas bombed Israeli observation towers, communications infrastructure and weapons systems along the border.

2. Coordinated rocket fire and man power

Israel said Hamas fired more than 3,000 rockets into the country, with some reaching as far as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Militants on fan-powered hang gliders flew across the border.

3. Explosives along the fence

Militants also used explosives to blow up sections of the barrier. Men on motorbikes drove through the gaps.

4. Widening the gap

Bulldozers did the rest, allowing enough space for larger vehicles to drive through.

Experts said the attack would have required weeks, at least, of preparation and subterfuge.

“The key would be to move equipment into position over a period of weeks beforehand, and then put it into buildings or under tarps,” said Michael E. O’Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He noted that many of the vehicles could have been hidden in plain sight in parking lots or construction zones.

Still, “The idea of a bull dozer getting that close to the fence at all just boggles the mind,” Levitt said.

These idiots never watched Patton?

"Fixed fortifications 

are monuments 

to the stupidity of man."

Today's Today

Creeping Authoritarianism

Israel-Gaza Conflict
Israel Battles Militants as Netanyahu Warns of Long War

More than 30 hours after militants from Gaza surged across the border, Israel’s military said its forces were still battling gunmen on Israeli territory. Around 600 Israelis are believed to have been killed and more than 370 Palestinians are dead.

So ya wanna be a dictator while not admitting you're a dictator, and you wanna stay in power forever while not admitting you're shit-canning the principles of democracy that might limit your tenure?

Find a really great crisis you can pimp to the masses so they won't notice how you're actually fucking them with their pants on, and you'll have a lot of them standing in line to volunteer to get fucked with their pants on - several extra times.

The best crisis? Invasion - terrorists - enemies from without and from within.

And if you can get one that puts a nice rosy glow of racist assholery on it - jackpot.

Today's Tweext

Nikki Haley is a major contender for the GOP nomination. Is she advocating for the country founded by and for Jewish folks, partly in response to the holocaust - she wants Israel to commit genocide?

"Finish them", Nikki? Really?

This is not just an attack on Israel—this was an attack on America.

Finish them, @Netanyahu.

They should have hell to pay for what they have just done. pic.twitter.com/0KKDwvOITS

— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) October 8, 2023

Today's Tweext

Are GOP voters really stupid enough to swallow this?

Trump says this is Democrats’ position on abortion: “If it’s after the 9th month and the baby was born you put the baby aside. You discuss with the mother and if the mother doesn’t want the baby we execute the baby. This is part of their thing.” pic.twitter.com/1bZlO9MWQI

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) October 7, 2023

It's Not Both Sides

Not all Press Poodles are created equal.

Heather Cox Richardson:

"This is not your mother's Republican Party. It has be come an extremist faction that has within its goals to get rid of the kind of government under which we've lived since 1933. So you have to start from the premise that you can't Both-Sides this issue. We have a national problem that is embodied by one hard-right extremist party."